Physician: “It’s predicted that in fact [radioactive particles] may concentrate as much on the West Coast as anywhere in Fukushima as it keeps coming wave after wave” (VIDEO)

Audience Question: I recently received a YouTube depicting radioactive contamination across the Pacific near to the U.S. West Coast as a result of the Fukushima reactor. No other news source appears to have acknowledged this scenario least of all the mainstream media. Is that fact or fiction.

Dr. Maureen McCue, founding member, faculty, and former director of the University of Iowa Global Health Studies Program and adjunct clinical professor in the Colleges of Public Health: I think it’s it fact that the mainstream media has not covered the phenomenon. I think we also experience regulatory capture in this country. I don’t know and I don’t think any of us know how much of the contamination is approaching the West Coast. It makes sense, when you look at ocean currents and wind streams, and the movement of marine life, that it will eventually reach the West Coast. In what concentrations, what amounts, nobody actually knows. It’s predicted that in fact it may concentrate as much on the West Coast as anywhere in Fukushima as it keeps coming wave after wave.

103 comments to Physician: “It’s predicted that in fact [radioactive particles] may concentrate as much on the West Coast as anywhere in Fukushima as it keeps coming wave after wave” (VIDEO)

That sounds about right. As much as anywhere around Fukushima and it will just keep coming in wave after wave. Once this actually hits and then gets worse and worse, who would live on the West Coast anywhere near the ocean? It will only get worse and will not ever end. This is going to be a hit to the US economy worse than anything we've ever seen. Mass panic and fear… holy shit!

OwnQuality.. i would love to spilt but with no steady work/income, it seems impossible. most people i know are in this situation or living paycheck to paycheck. i knew our government was run by corporate whores, but i never thought i'd see the day that they just straight up withheld vital information as to the overall safety of our land, oceans and atmosphere to this scale. it's surreal, i feel helpless, hopeless and depressed most of the time. and the amount of people that are still clueless, just floors me. i ride my bike or scooter and watch the sunset over the pacific and just cry. we've all been betrayed, the average citizens, animals and our beautiful pacific. all i can say is fuck these murdering child killing psychopaths that run the world, they'll never squeeze another dime from me. how much have the tax payers spent funding EPA, FDA, Homeland Security, NRC over the years? this is the best they can do for the public welfare? Failures and Criminals. time to hold them responsible.

sayonara
The Ostrich effect seems to be quite prevalent in North America,some people that I have spoken to didn't know what fukushima was!!! Others just don't want to talk about it.If the news is correct and the Government is not testing our food,water,air,that is criminal,and they have to be held accountable. Part of our governments job is to keep the people safe (well it used to be)now corporations are more important.It's horrible to see what greed and power can do!

I agree….
"all i can say is fuck these murdering child killing psychopaths that run the world, they'll never squeeze another dime from me. how much have the tax payers spent funding EPA, FDA, Homeland Security, NRC over the years? this is the best they can do for the public welfare? Failures and Criminals. time to hold them responsible."

The details of the shutting down of the NOAA Pacific Ocean monitoring buoys:

"The numbers don’t add up. When, in 2012, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) retired the Ka’imimoana, a former US Navy ship dedicated to maintaining an array of moored buoys that monitors the equatorial Pacific Ocean, administrators were able to chop roughly US$6 million from the annual NOAA budget. In 2013, the agency says, it spent up to $3 million chartering boats for the same purpose. Those charters have failed to keep pace with the rigorous maintenance requirements, however, and the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array has partially collapsed as a result (see Nature http://doi.org/q72; 2014). The upshot is that, to save a few million dollars, NOAA has left the world partially blind to a phenomenon that can cause tens of billions of dollars in damage."

The NOAA budget was axed by the current administration(see their webpages). Its not just west coast buoys who are not maintained., its east coast as well. Sadly, mariners who use buoys for weather go/no go decisions are getting into trouble. Last fall, one rally lost 9 boats to damages due to unexpectedly strong weather. Models use the buoy system as part of their inputs..no inputs mean poor guidance. Add to that fact, that two satellites NOAA uses for short term forecasts are down and not providing weather data either. Its not looking so good for taxpayers. Thankfully no one died in the one rally weather event, but two boats were lost/sank! USA weather forecasters can use EU satellites, but not sure they offer the details the broken USA ones used to provide. Go figure..let the infrastructure die..ignore health dangers to the citizens by not monitoring for contamination (EPA) and so on. So what is wrong with this picture? Just where are all the dollars going? Into politicos pockets?

jec, is it really the current administration or forced budget cuts that have been destined for years to hit at this time. Just as the waste keeps hitting from Fukushima, the US is now in a financial, and environmental disaster that was designed years ago. Laws and funding have to be rebuilt. The devastation we see now doesn't happen in 5,10 or 15 years…very tough to reverse.

Everyone says it is about SPENDING. Yet when Cheney was in there and famously said, "Deficits don't matter," no one jumped, because of the enormous wrongful transfer of POWER that no one could seem to stop.

So even spending to SAVE THE NATION has been sidelined. Interesting (not really o-t, rather parallel) was an interview with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, head of the NY Planetarium. He said that asteroid deflection was technologically doable, but no one would allocate a dime of MONEY. Even to save THE PLANET.

We think these are monetary problems, but really they are the hugest mental and moral problems! Yeah, I'd like to save ME, but I won't move to save WE. It's pathological mind-set.

Actually, the administration produces a suggested budget, but from there it's all up to Congress. And in this case that would specifically be the House Science Committee. Which in the current Congress, would more accurately be termed the, House Anti-Science Committee. From Phil Gingrey & Todd "legitimate rape" Akin [1] to Paul "humans and dinosaurs lived together" Broun [2], they've de-funded just about anything that might point to corporate operations possibly being bad for the environment. And then there's the outgoing committee chair, Rep. Ralph Hall who thinks global warming is an anti-God conspiracy [3].

[1] "if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
[2] "All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell," Broun said at a banquet for a church sporting club. "And it's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior." Broun, who added that "I don't believe that the Earth's but about 9,000 years old," will remain on the science committee in the 113th Congress.
[3] [Hall] told National Journal he didn't believe climate change was man-made because "I don't think we can control what God controls. "I'm really more fearful of freezing," Hall said. "And I don't have any science to prove that.

crash2parties, I saw that interview with Mr. Hall. As unbelievably misinformed as the
GOP party leader in Oregon, Art Anderson?(not sure of his last name at the moment) who wants to shower Americans with radioactive waste for the sake of health. Hormesis.
This all makes me very angry. I'm not a hateful person but I feel hatred for these stupid people and the harm they do.

Would you please avoid the religious comments, Crash2Parties? Or anti-religious comments? Am not saying I agree or disagree, but according to Admin's policy, religious comments just don't belong here, thank you.

hotaters, I think your read of crashtoparties is not on point. As Socrates says below, we must vet our political candidates and that means hearing what they are saying to the public. These comments weren't made in church or some private religious conversation. They were made as part of their political agenda and platform for election. Your comment would be best delivered to those candidates, but here they flesh out what some of the pro-nuke people in our government are saying in interviews. Important to know.

Thanks, American Phoenix57. Most of what needed to be said was said here, by everyone, and many of us 'originals' including yourself made it through anger and depression to finally acceptance (the 7 Stages of Grief, for the newbies), except maybe Whoopie. I still miss her.

Now it's a just a continuous drip of bad news as the situation becomes what many of us said it would from the beginning. I shudder to think what will be reported here in a few years.

Obama said that no dangerous radiation could cross the oceans. People could have protected themselves more than they did. I would like to see his college transcripts to see his grades in sciences.

I am looking forward to out first green president. Jill Stein, M.D. was arrested as she attempted to enter the debates. This is democracy?

Shame on Obama! We need educated voices in our energy debates who do not accept campaign contributions from industry.

Physicians are speaking out now. Obama will look like Emperor Nero – he slept while Fukushima burned.

I am at a Democratic political function right now. I have supported the party system. No more. I vet each candidate on his/her anti-nuclear stance. When your industry ties mean more than duties to the health and welfare of the people, such as appointing former GE CEO to head the DOE and seeing David Axelrod in a nuclear company, you see that this president will not help us on nuclear energy and will fast-track the new anti-environmental trade agreement.

Multinational corporations are the citizens of the New World Order. Private citizens of enormous wealth rarely run for office. For example, the Koch brothers.

Citizen's United allows states to evade limits on campaign contributions. One dollar, one vote.

This is called "plutocracy" or rule by wealthy. When.combined with military industrial complex, it is called fascism. In 1933, Hitler had the Enabling Act passed. Gypsies, Jews and the mentally disabled were targeted. In the US it will be working people who are lazy, or some variant. The victims will vote for the new masters only to realize too late they dug their own graves, as in Germany.

Obama is now the easy target, and methinks not the right one to aim at. Please, just to honor my
truth on this, I must say it, but won't keep repeating, as that is a waste of my time and the time of others. Where does this really emanate from? Socrates, yes, that is a good idea to make Fuku an issue in local politics, political events…would like to hear your reports on the response you get.

name999…I agree presidents are all talking heads….the face to appease the masses while the real power brokers do what ever they want to do behind the scenes. Anyone who thinks they have the power to choose and elect the president(s) are very naive.

Pro-nuclear power has one center at least – that is Queen Elizabeth Ii in England. Canada, Australian and South Africa have lots of uranium ore. Depleted uranium companies make money and then the UK is heavily armed with nukes.

Allegedly, the Queen has increased her personal net worth from hundreds of millions into tens of billions. The Brits are dependent on nuclear. The Queen may also control minerals rights throughout the UK.

Obama may take orders from the Queen to some extent. Bankers seem to not be prosecuted. The Libor scandal reveals overseas collusion. Our MIC and energy consortiums are another center of power pushing nuclear energy. On can not blame Obama or any other president. That is setting too low a standard but could, unfortunately be the situation. Still, the candidates can be vetted. Not that some keep promises.

Obama brought in the Clintonistas who gave us NAFTA, Graham, Leach, eliminating separation of commercial banking from investment banking, and who sponsored the humanitarian war concepts…

The Powers that Be "forced" Obama to bring in Robert Rubin and Robert Gates, the new Secretary of Energy, etc. Poor man….

See what "they" made him do now! They twisted his rubber arm. They made him sacrifice the constitution! They forced his attorney general to accept deferred prosecutions agreements from the banksters. Now look what they made him do!

"eliminating commercial banking from investment banking"
These barriers that supposedly create a legal banking system have been undermined for decades with loopholes depending on who you work for that makes it completely legal.

The difference between then and now is that people know about it now. Not the beginning however. Nothing new with that.

That our government did nothing after 3/2011 except cover up the crimes against humanity may have actually pushed the horror of our Mid East war crimes down a notch. All in the name of political power & corporate profits, as the two are fully intertwined in our current socio-political-economic reality. And everyone, in both the Japanese and American governments -and all others that stood by and said nothing- are just as guilty. Republican, Democrat, Independent…they all took the easy route knowing the cost in lives ruined would never be pinned on them personally.

Japan has a vast investment in nuclear energy. The accident at Fukushima is viewed as a minor inconvenience in the way forward for the nuclear industry. Plans are in place for a Vitrified Waste Storage Centre deep underground.

The US has spent billions so far with no demonstrable proof vitrification works:

'GAO slams Hanford vit plant project'

"The Hanford vitrification plant has not been well planned, well managed or well executed, according to a Government Accountability Office review requested by Congress and released Friday.

"Daunting technical challenges that will take significant effort and years to resolve combined with a near tripling of project costs and a decade of schedule delays raise troubling questions as to whether this project can be constructed and operated successfully," the GAO said.

"Additional cost increases amounting to billions of dollars and schedule delays of years are almost certain to occur," it said."

I have a real problem with the statement wave after wave, this is one continuous wave of radiation and embedded in this column of water, are bands that have varying levels of radioactive isotopes incorporated in to water. It is not a tsunami.

What happened to dilution, if it is being diluted then the water colume should be the same everywhere, but it is not, why it takes time to fully dilute and until that time we will see bands of radiation approaching the west coast of varying intensities until all leaks are stopped at Fukushima.

It just so happens, waves propagate through a body of water. Interesting phenomenon. They can also deposit things on the beach. Just to clear up some confusion. Pretty much in agreement with everything else.

No question that water waves can deposit radiological isotopes on land to be blown inland, I am not disputing that point.
That is why I don't like wave, word association, a wave can be many things that is why I prefer bands?
The physics of a water wave has to be understood, when you through a rock into pond and waves are produced, the molecules bump into each other like dominos, the original molecule does not make it to other side of pond?
As you said wave propagate through body of water.
Please if I am on the wrong track please convince me, they are not talking about a water waves but waves of radioactive water. Thick as a brick.

Could be they mean the movement of the plume along different parts of the coastline, starting in the north and moving southward with the current. At each location (major city), the plume strikes and recedes in terms of its concentration of radionuclide contamination. As it spreads out over time, it becomes continuous, judging from the models. But nobody really knows exactly how this endless poisonous onslaught is manifest in the environment that affects us: water for drinking & cultivation, seafood & animals & plants for food, and the air we breathe. The deleterious effects will take their toll over time, but sooner or later all life will be harmed and not just on the west coast. There is no escape from it, not anywhere.

Every time a typhoon impacts Japan, you have a deluge of water flushing out isotopes, at that time you will see a wave, spike, pulse of radiation in water column and it will slowly but surly make it way across the ocean, it will be diluted to its original concentration, in other words it will vary and we really don't know the makeup?

The Pacific Ocean. A place that was filled with magic and beauty, all the sea life in those waters! A whole new world to connect with as a human being. A place of health and healing for everyone. A place to find God, a place to hear the voice of one's own conscience. Still can't grasp this loss.

news, The Pacific Northwest has been one of the most beautiful places I have travelled to. Lived here 25 years. My vacations on the Oregon and Washington coast have given meaning to my life, such beauty. I'm not sure how to navigate a toxic world…
something out of a Frank Herbert novel.

name999…coastal Oregon and Washington are so beautiful. I've cherished nature my whole life , and even though I know it's true that (radiation) is here, somehow I cannot absorb it….I guess it's because I feel similar to you "I'm not sure how to navigate a toxic world…"

"Surfboard riders, borrowing an old sailor's expression, often speak of a 'ninth wave'. It means a single wave larger than all the others. Colossal, unexpected – ninth waves are the stuff of legend. It is said that nothing can withstand their power." Gregory A Petsko.

Seemingly endless teenage CA summers off 24th St. beach 'outside' the breakers waiting for the '9th wave', then rushing to get into one side of it for the bodysurf ride of a lifetime, putting yourself in God's hands for a moment knowing you'd soon be returned to peaceful waters.

name999…beautifully written. I keep hoping that somehow, this is not the epitaph for our beloved Pacific and her marvelous creatures. I live in the state of Washington…the middle of the state, but my husband and I expect (due to his job) to be living very near the ocean, soon. All my life I had dreamed of this…but I beg the universe, whoever is listening, whatever powers might be able to mitigate this disaster (including our own that may yet be imagined), please don't make me watch the ocean die. If it is any comfort, at least you are not alone in your feelings.

However, similar measurements beneath the surface layer showed an overall enrichment of Am over Pu on fine suspended particles with depth. Freshly produced zooplankton fecal pellets and large, fast sinking particles collected in PITS contained relatively high concentrations of Pu and Am. Both transuranic concentrations in trapped particles and transuranic flux tended to increase with depth down to 750 m, suggesting that their scavenging is in the upper water column.

We won't find them because they won't be funded. Worse still, if you are a researcher and raise too big of a fuss that goes against the official message, well, good luck with that career 'cause grants are not coming your way any time soon…

There must be some grim satisfaction of the older Japanese that the toxins steadily course relentlessly in the eastern flowing jetstream. Payback for the fire bombings of Tokyo, the two nuclear bombs destroying their cities filled with civilians, and the nearly 70 years of American occupation forces.

But unfortunately the toxins aren't just going east and eventually the circulating cloud returns around the globe in about 40 days. Still carrying whatever toxins did not rain down in the first pass.

But of far more danger are the local Honshu winds which vary 360 degrees every few days or hours. For example…Saturday afternoon Feb. 1 starting at 3 PM is not looking too good for Tokyo fallout patterns:

I keep wonder what the reason could be why our Government is hiding the facts.
Aside from their support of nuclear power, I think they are afraid of the coming evacuations.
There's no place to relocate all the Californians who are slowly but surely finding out the truth.
And of course, the big question, "who's going to pay for it?"

Let's not forget that California (and slightly more so, the West Coast) produces a massive amount of the nation's food crops. Pointing out that they might be contaminated an inedible is a bit…inconvenient for career politicians, especially if haven't said a word up to now.

Now you're getting to the heart of the matter — economics. I don't think the authorities are much concerned about evacuation, if people were to find out that deadly contamination was on the way, because they wouldn't lift a finger to help us anyway. Remember Katrina? …FEMA under the direction of "heck-of-a-job Brownie" left a whole lot of people stranded who couldn't escape due to lack of resources and/or inability to travel. That's the kind of government we have now too, except for perhaps the State of California. I'm still waiting to hear from the latter, though.

In a nuclear accident eventuality, the decontamination of potable water without disturbing the water quality is one of the major challenges. During this work, efforts have been made to reduce the contamination of americium (Am)-241 from potable water effectively by using calcium alginate followed by treatment with activated charcoal. Laboratory simulated experiments were carried out for the removal of low level of Am-241 from the potable water originated from groundwater, rain water and lake water. Water samples after filtering through 0.45 μm filter paper were spiked in the range of 10–200 Bq L− 1 of Am-241 as Am(NO3)3. In the pH range 1–8, 60–98% Am was sorbed in the beads with a maximum observed at pH 4 ± 0.2. It was observed that the variation of carbonate, bicarbonate, does not influence the sorption capacity of calcium alginate whereas the DOC decreased the sorption capacity in the range of 40–93% depending on DOC concentration. Ninety-eight to ninety-nine percent of Am is recovered from sodium alginate beads by using 0.6 M HNO3. The mechanism of interaction of Am with calcium alginate is proposed based on attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR).http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011916411006308

Times all the water needed for 350 million people, and the agriculture to feed them.

Plus fracking, which uses 1-3 million gallons of fresh water per a well's 3-4 year lifetime, totally destroying any reuse of that water. Fracking is a cancer that spreads, leaving dead zones in it's wake, never to be reclaimed. Sorry, OT. Maybe.

'Humanity is circling the drain'….brilliant description. When I see things like Fuku, the dolphin slaughter, etc. I think mother earth needs another chance…without us. And yet…we are capable of so much beauty, wisdom and compassion. Why can't the latter triumph? I hope, I pray it still can.

Our government, by not saying anything about Fukushima, implies to me some level of implication in the disaster itself. Didn't we ship plutonium for reprocessing to Japan? Was it "our" MOX that blew sky high in March of 2011?

Heck, we never even stopped importing Japanese food and goods.

Carry on folks, nothing to se here.

When enough people realize how shallow our government is, it will have declared martial law.

that is logical, even if too late to fix. But as you say, J, it does not work this way and elected officials don't have that much power or the laws on their side now more than in the past when we did have some vestiges of democracy. Not much left and the vote is perverted by Diebold.

TEPCO "There was worry that if Tepco were to implement a severe accident response plan it would spur anxiety throughout the country and in the community where the plant was sited. It would lend momentum to the anti nuclear movement."

Unreal. Hard to maintain hope when you consider who's hands we're in. And I don't believe this is only a Tepco or Japanese cover up- this is a global cover up. What are the chances that they aren't testing. The Canadian government has done nothing to protect my children any more than the Japanese gvt. Silence speaks a thousand words and here we now have the proof that their silence was premeditated from the get go.

Speaking of tv- I admit it, I watch too much of it, but in the past month or so I've noticed references to fuku on various shows like Modern Family, a new one called RAKE. Someone else in here said it was mentioned on Hawaii 5-O twice. There might be hope after all- at least for disclosure. But I don't think it will ever come in the form of solid data. It will become obvious over time, and over time we will just accept is as our new truth and the lies and cover ups will just be added to a long list of many others. People will be so confused as to who exactly to be angry toward, and too busy implementing safety precautions into their daily existences, to put their energy toward taking down tyrants who are untouchable anyway.

I agree
I watch the Japanese news on pbs and they are too , just a little and usually warped but I can read between lines …gee I'm not really sure anymore that I want so many people at once to understand totally . Am I selfish ?
This could get very scary .

Time is short: ''What is it they don't want to find?''
Isn't it amazing. We have entered a twilight world of anti-science, in which the goal is to make everyone brainless and ignorant and stupid. Soon thousands of years of ''civilisation'' will culminate in the ideal human, someone who can't read or speak or understand a bloody thing, helpless, gormless, gullible, ring through the nose, off to the slaugherhouse.
People think budget cuts are to blame. Budget cuts are the goal. If you cut the budget, you can't monitor, you can't investigate, you can't look after the interests of the gormless idiots (that's us) who elected you.
Who would have thought that governments could turn to ignorance as the answer to complex problems that threaten the very planet on which we live. Even the bloody ostriches are laughing at us. What a bunch of clowns, dancing on our own graves. Put on the blindfolds, lemmings, let's all run off the cliff together.

Take a step back to deters on alive what is happening with radiation and muscle, thyroid and bone-seekers…

Taiwan is an example of a small industrialized country that "needs" nuclear power, but cannot evacuate it's inhabitants in the event of a meltdown. Like Japan, this country is between a rock and a hard spot.

In mainland China, many reactors are being built and run with poor regulation. Taiwan is downwind of China in a meltdown.

Pretty grim situation that keeps conscientious nuclear engineers there awake all night with major worries…. Knowing that it can never be made safe enough, gambling with extinction… waiting for the next meltdown.

Maybe there will be a true Nuclear Renaissance where populations abandon this paradigm for energy.

Too many people using too much non – renewable energy….

There needs to be a moratorium on new births with a lottery for new children. Either that, or Mother Nature will impose population limits in her sole discretion, as she does.

I have seen this coming for well over half a century. Looking at the fossil record should convince anyone that 99.999% of all species have gone extinct. Climate changes, and with it, the biota. Being blind to these processes for "economic" reasons is NOT scientific.

Early man had to scramble to survive. He was too successful. Man's numbers and habits must change. Either we do it, or it will be done for us.

Late Permian early Triassic – major extinction event. But then North America was still attached to Africa – attributed in part to major volcanic episode in what is now Russia. People didn't exist them – so it could not be global warming by us. Talk about your major climate change – bummer.

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